E. O. Hall & Son, Ltd. v. Dickey

15 Haw. 590, 1904 Haw. LEXIS 71
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedApril 20, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 15 Haw. 590 (E. O. Hall & Son, Ltd. v. Dickey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
E. O. Hall & Son, Ltd. v. Dickey, 15 Haw. 590, 1904 Haw. LEXIS 71 (haw 1904).

Opinions

OPINION OP THE COURT BY

PERRY, J.

(Galbraith, J., dissenting.)

This is a petition for a writ of mandamus to compel the respondent as District Magistrate of Honolulu to issue execution, pending an appeal to the Circuit Court, in a cause wherein the respondent gave judgment for the plaintiff, the present petitioner, for the sum of $309.40. The Magistrate, although finding that good cause was shown for the issuance of the execution pending the appeal, denied plaintiff’s motion for such execution ■on the sole ground that Sec. 11 of Chap. 57 of the Laws of 1892, .as amended by Sec. 17 of Act 32 of the Laws of 1903, which [591]*591purports to authorize sucb issuance, is not applicable to district ■.magistrates in cases where the amount involved is over $20.

In his answer, the respondent sets up the additional ground that the judgment, being for an amount exceeding $300 was beyond his jurisdiction to render and is therefore voidable. This point was practically disposed of in Lewers & Cooke v. Redhouse, 14 Haw. 290, 293, in which it was said: “Attorney’s commissions and costs allowed by statute should not, we pre-mune, be included in determining the jurisdictional amount. They are not a part of the claim or of the amount sued for. They are incidental to the action itself. They are not due and could not be claimed until the termination of the action.” In the case under consideration the judgment was for $215.91 damages, $15.26 interest, $14.78 attorney’s commissions and $3.45 costs ■of court. Excluding attorney’s commissions and costs, the amount of the judgment was within the jurisdictional limit.

Section 71 of Chap. 57 of Laws of 1892 (C.L., Sec. 1435), as amended by Sec. 17 of the Laws of 1903, reads as follows: “An appeal duly taken and perfected in any case from a judgment, order or decree of a Circuit Judge or District Magistrate shall operate as an arrest of judgment and stay of execution; Provided, however, that the Judge or Magistrate may, upon good cause shown, allow execution to issue or other appropriate action to be taken for the enforcement of such judgment, order ■or decree, pending such apneal, unless the applicant shall within such time as shall be allowed by the Judge or Magistrate deposit a bond in such amount and with such sureties as shall be approved by the Judge or Magistrate (the amount to be not less than double the amount of the judgment, order or decree, if it is money judgment, order or decree) conditioned for the prosecution of the appeal without delay and for the payment or other performance, as the case may be, of the judgment, order or ■decree or part thereof that may be rendered or affirmed in the appellate court; and, provided further, that no political corporation or officer or executor, administrator, guardian, trustee or receiver, .acting in his official capacity, need deposit such bond [592]*592in order to prevent the enforcement of such, judgment, order or decree, pending the appeal, and provided further, that in case of an appealable order of a Circuit Judge for counsel fees, suit money, temporary alimony, or other provisional order of a like nature made before final judgment in the cause, an appeal shall not operate as an arrest of judgment or stay of execution, if the appellee shall deposit a bond in such sum and with such sureties, as the Judge shall approve, conditioned for the indemnification of the appellant for all damages that he may sustain by reason of the payment or execution of such order, in case the^appeal shall be sustained.”

The main defense is that the first proviso of this section does, not apply to cases tried by district magistrates in which the amount involved exceeds -$20, — that, in other words, if it does-apply to such cases it is invalid because it unduly obstructs and practically denies the right of trial by jury secured by the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution. A preliminary question also arises and that is as to the correct construction of the word “applicant” in the first proviso.

We have no hesitation in holding that the word “applicant”' should be read as though it were written “appellant”; and it is. immaterial in this respect whether the word was purposely used as written to denote the party who is appealing or was inadvertently, through an error of the copyist, so written in place of' the word “appellant”, although we think that the latter is the-correct explanation. In any event, a reading of the section as-a whole shows clearly that the appellant is the party referred to. It can be no other. The provision is that execution may issue “unless the applicant shall * * * deposit a bond * * conditioned for the prosecution of the appeal without delay, and' for the payment or other performance * * * of the judgment,, order or decree or part thereof that may be rendered or affirmed in the appellate court.” Who is it that is interested in preventing, temporarily or otherwise, the enforcement of the judgment ? Only the party against whom it is rendered, the áppellant. The-bond must be conditioned for the prosecution of the appeal-[593]*593Who, other than the appellant, can prosecute the appeal? -No one. The bond must also be conditioned for the payment of the judgment or part thereof that may be rendered or affirmed by the appellate court, that is, for the payment of the judgment or part thereof originally rendered in the district court. No one but the party against whom it is rendered, the appellant, can be expected or asked to assure the payment of suck judgment. Moreover, the legislature in the second proviso named certain exceptions to the rule stated in the first, declaring that “no political corporation or officer or executor, administrator, guardian, trustee or receiver, acting in his official capacity, need deposit such bond,” that is, the bond required by the first proviso, “in order to prevent the enforcement of such judgment * * - pending the appeal”, thus disclosing beyond any doubt that the object of the filing of the bond is to prevent the enforcement of the judgment. As already stated, the appellant only can have any desire to prevent such enforcement. Certainly, by the “applicant” the legislature did not mean the party prevailing and could not have meant a stranger to the record. It meant either the applicant for an appeal, — an unusual term of description, no doubt, — or, as we think, it meant the “appellant” and intended to use that term but through inadvertence permitted the word “applicant” to find its way into the enrolled copy of the bill. The intention of the legislature in the use of the word being made clear by the remaining language of the section, that intention is sufficiently expressed and must be given effect.

As to the validity of the first proviso as applied to district court cases where the value in controversy exceeds $20, the question now before us differs materially from that considered in Wong Chow v. Dickey, 14 Haw. 524. The statute in force at the date of that decision (C.L., §1435) provided that' “an appeal duly taken and perfected in any cause provided for in this Act shall immediately thereafter operate as an arrest of judgment and stay of execution, provided that execution may issue pending such appeal upon good and sufficient cause being shown therefor.” We held that to permit an enforcement of a judgment pend[594]*594ing an appeal and before an opportunity bad been had for a trial by jury was in substance a denial of the right to such trial guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment. Pour months later the legislature amended Sec. 1435 so that it now reads as above quoted.

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Bluebook (online)
15 Haw. 590, 1904 Haw. LEXIS 71, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/e-o-hall-son-ltd-v-dickey-haw-1904.